Setting the stage for a bright future

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At first glance, I passed him off as one of the audience members who came to watch the theatre production Abhi Ek Muskaan Baki Hai that was presented by 30 college students with no prior experience in theatre under the volunteer programme of Child Rights and You (CRY) in the capital recently.

After the performance, as the audience applauds, students crowd around Walter Peter and thank him for preparing them. Walter Peter is the Theatre In Education (TIE) coordinator with CRY and works in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Delhi. He has been working as a TIE trainer for the last 20 years and has even done some experiments.
His name appears in the Limca Book of World Records for an interactive theatre production where more than 2,000 parents, teachers, trustees and principals came together to share their views on the national movement.
While these are some of the high points of Walter’s life, it has never been an easy journey for him. Born in a very poor family in Sewa Nagar, Walter’s life has been full of struggles. But in his teen years he was introduced to theatre and joined the National School of Drama’s TIE Company. “That was being headed by Barry John and I was a part of the first batch (a group of 30 students) of the TIE programme at NSD. I was 16 then,” shares Walter, and says that the one-month programme brought drastic changes in him.
“I was an introvert, shy kid. But the workshop changed me completely. I got a direction in life. I understood that TIE is a great medium to bring changes,” he says.
With encouragement from Barry and Abdul Latif Khatana (the present chief of TIE at NSD), Walter took up theatre in full swing.
“Later, I became a member of TIE, NSD. For six years (that was the contract period), I enjoyed working with the kids. While many of my contemporaries moved to television and films, I stuck around because working for kids became my passion,” he says.
But once those six years were over, Walter was back to the struggles. “I could have tried my luck in the glam industry too. If nothing else, I would have at least earned enough to support myself. But I wanted to work for the kids and thus kept looking for work at different NGOs even while I struggled financially,” says Walter, who finally associated with various NGOs and has been conducting TIE programmes for them.
He says that he has heard heart-wrenching stories from kids under the various TIE programmes. “Recently, in Damoh in MP, kids spoke about sad stories of corporal punishment. It’s difficult to get these stories out in normal circumstances but TIE brings it out,” says Walter, who feels sad at the condition of the education system.
He says that participatory programmes in schools would bring a lot of change. “But the government is not open to that. There are many like me who want to bring about a change but there’s no support from the government,” says Walter, who lives in a shelter home provided by the Anand Nikatan School in Ahmedabad.